As
our heroes are on the road toward the Battle Frontier, Kasumi receives
a phone call from her sisters. It seems that there are too many
challengers at the gym that day, so they want to just -give- badges to
all the trainers who showed up. Kasumi is opposed to this idea
and tells them to hold on as she makes her way over there. As
Kasumi and the others hurry along the path, they are attacked by the
Rocket-Dan, who are once again trying to steal our heroes'
pokemon. The ensuing battle causes an explosion that separates
Kasumi, Masato, Pikachu, and a wild Py from the others. As the
trainers search for each other, a rainstorm begins that makes it
impossible to continue through the mountain. Kasumi and Masato
take refuge in an uninhabited cave, where they share stories about
their annoying older sisters. Kasumi tells Masato that even
though his sister may get on his nerves from time to time, she cares
very much about him. The storm clears, and our heroes eventually
find the others. After fending off the Rocket-Dan in a second
battle, our heroes stick around and watch the fairy pokemon's moon
dance before getting back on the road. Kasumi gets another phone
call from her sisters telling her that they can't wait any longer, so
the young Gym Leader is forced to separate from our heroes to return to
her gym. As Kasumi gets on the path to Hanada City, Satoshi and
the others continue on their journey to the Battle Factory.

ThoughtsNow this is what I call a really nice
episode. Everything about this episode was just done right, from
the rare interaction between Kasumi and Masato to the many nostalgic
elements (Kasumi's fear of bug pokemon and the Pippi group worshipping
the Moon Stone) to the debut of PokeGear in the regular series.
The only thing I didn't really like about this episode was Kasumi's
backpack. The thing looks like a gutted out Tamazarashi, and
every time it was on camera it freaked me the hell out.

The dubbed version was pretty alright. I really enjoyed Rachel
Lillis' performance as Misty in this episode more than I usually do,
and I don't really know why. Maybe it's because I know this is
the last time we'll see the character before Pokemon USA takes over and
replaces everyone.

I also liked the fact that the main series is being inconsistent with
the edits made to the Pokémon
Chronicles episodes. If you remember, the backwards number
two got erased from Jimmy's and Marina's PokéGear in "The Legend of Thunder," but
Misty's PokéGear in this
episode remains unedited. Usually I see inconsistency as a bad
thing, but in this case I'm going to celebrate the fact that the main
series is disregarding the losers who edited the Pokémon Chronicles episodes.
Spear keeps its Japanese voice.

Cut--12 seconds altogether
This episode is nothing but time cuts. Now if only 4Kids would
play more of the Japanese music...

The first shot of the episode is shortened by three seconds.

The new title screen is shortened by two seconds like all the
others. And, like the other two title screens in Advanced Generation, 4Kids
continues to use the old title screen music instead of the newer music
that debuted in AG 001. Losers.

Four seconds of some recycled footage of Kasumi and Masato falling
after the Trainer's Choice commercial break is removed from the dub.

Finally, three seconds are removed from the shot after Kids' WB!'s
final commercial break.